VR could pose risk of addiction to sexual, violent contents

VR could pose risk of addiction to sexual, violent contents. May. 21, 2016 08:58. by 곽도영 now@donga.com. Video clips dubbed "reactions of people who watched Virtual Reality (VR) pornography for the first time" is gaining popularity on YouTube. The videos are footages on people who are watching adult contents with VR goggles, and some of them have earned up to 15 million views.

Most of the people shown in those video clips are seen shocked. They have posted a flurry of online comments, such as “It is scary that things like this are actually posted,” and “People may no longer wish to go out from home.”

These responses sound mischievous and joyful, but the level of immersion into VR contents is already causing social concern in reality. Given VR products and contents that are robustly generated, experts predict that VR will become as common as today’s tablet PCs in two to three years.

VR could pose high risk of addiction due to far stronger stimulus and immersion when compared with the smartphone. There is also concern over rampancy of sexual and violent contents. “As for TVs and smartphones, people can recognize situation around them while using,” said Cha Won-yong, a member for ICT convergence at the National Science and Technology Counsel. “Given that VR makes it difficult for people to escape by blocking the eyes and ears, however, the more sophisticated VR contents get, the bigger concern they will pose.”

Another issue to consider is VR devices’ physical and mental influences on the user: Unlike the smartphone or TV, VR devices are in direct contact with the body. Notably, if infants or elementary students wear a VR device for a long time, it could also damage their hearing and cause cyber motion sickness.

“Environment for development of VR has been created in Korea as well, but the VR industry has remaining issues and challenges to examine and address before VR technology becomes widespread among the public,” said Lee Bo-seong, researcher at the Barun ICT Institute.